Freddie Laker From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Sir Frederick Alfred Laker (6 August 1922 ? 9 February 2006), better known as Sir Freddie Laker, was a British airline entrepreneur. He was one of the first airline owners to introduce the "no-frills" airline system, a business model that has since proven to be very successful worldwide with companies such as Ryanair, easyJet, Southwest Airlines and Virgin Blue. Laker, originally from Canterbury and an Old Boy of Simon Langton Grammar School for boys, started working in aviation with the Short brothers. He was a member of the Air Transport Auxiliary during and immediately after World War II (1941-46). In 1960, he joined British United Airways where he was manager for five years, and gained an understanding of the aviation business. In 1966 he departed to form his own airline, Laker Airways, using second-hand airliners from BOAC. The livery was a mixture of black and red with a bold LAKER logo on the tailplane. Laker Airways was committed to offering air travel as economically as possible with passengers being required to buy tickets on the day of travel and their meals being paid for separately. In 1973 the company submitted an application to the British Air Transport Licensing Board to launch its trans-Atlantic Skytrain service at a price almost one-third that of the major competition. The application was not granted until 1977, after much legal wrangling (there were doubts as to Laker's economic viability, and allegations of adverse pressure from a cartel involving the major airlines, who had meanwhile lowered their prices to just above Laker's level). Skytrain was extremely popular, and Laker was popular with the public ? a forerunner of Richard Branson and one of Margaret Thatcher's golden boys of industry (along with Sir Clive Sinclair and Sir Alan Sugar). In 1978 Laker was knighted for services to the airline industry. His airline became one of the early buyers of the first Airbus airliners, the Airbus A300, and in 1981 had plans to expand into Europe. [edit] Bankruptcy In 1982 the company went bust, owing over UK£250 million. There were numerous reasons for this ? Britain and the world were in recession and other airlines were making a loss by competing with Laker. Laker Airways had expanded too quickly in the late 1970s and bought a large fleet of Douglas DC-10s at just the wrong time ? the DC-10 was perceived to have an uncertain safety record at that time, scaring off potential customers (there had been a number of fatal crashes involving the aircraft in the mid-1970s). The fallout from the company's demise descended into litigation and confusion. Laker was undaunted and almost immediately attempted to re-launch the airline on the back of a strong public following (a relief fund gathered over a million pounds, helped by endorsement from the music band The Police, who had used Laker to tour America). It was not until the early 1990s that Laker, by now living in the Bahamas, got off the ground again, moving his operations base to Freeport, from where the airline flew until it shut down in 2005. Laker is also remembered for his famous advice to fellow airline entrepreneurs Sir Richard Branson, of Virgin Atlantic, and Stelios Haji-Ioannou, of easyJet, to "sue the bastards", this being a reference to the bullying tactics of British Airways to try and force the no-frills upstarts out of business. As a tribute to Laker Airways, Virgin Atlantic Airways later named one of its Boeing 747s The Spirit of Sir Freddie. Sir Freddie died of undisclosed causes in Miami, Florida on 9 February 2006. [edit] External link www.lakerairways.co.uk - A website dedicated to Laker Airways, a source of information and a contact point for ex-crew members. Reuters News announcing his death Obituary from BBC News Roger & Amanda La France